Parkersburg Vs. Marietta: The Latest Round In The "Battle"

This time, it involves "the other media".

People often complain to us that WTAP spends too much time covering the Ohio side of the river.

I suggest they take a look at Monday's (February 22) edition of the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.

The newspaper that day had nine main articles...a small number, I admit, since Sunday, as usual, was a "slow news day".

Eight of them, including two of three on the front page, were from or related to Marietta, including the story of the Becky Thatcher, which until recently was docked in Marietta, sinking at its new dock site in Pittsburgh. Nonetheless, nearly all of them were hard-news stories, such as the apartment fire that happened Saturday.

Some might have thought that to be odd, since the people who own the News and Sentinel also own the Marietta Times.

I am not, I stress, criticizing the newspaper for this. Many of these stories also were covered by WTAP. I'm simply saying that the newspaper, in deciding which stories to run, opted for the newsworthiness of the stories rather than focusing solely on what side of the Ohio River they happened on.

Still, I wonder how many people contacted (by phone or e-mail) the paper Monday morning, complaining that they "only cover Marietta."

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